


Go to Bed

by thatsoccercoach



Series: Which Door? [53]
Category: Outlander & Related Fandoms, Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: Sleep Deprivation, family life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2018-06-26
Packaged: 2019-05-28 20:11:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15056864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatsoccercoach/pseuds/thatsoccercoach
Summary: When you're raising four small Frasers, sleep is the exception, not the norm.





	Go to Bed

                                                                   

A pointy elbow jabbed Claire in the chest and she groaned.

It was sometime in the middle of the night. Jamie was at work and had been for the past couple of days and nights. She was here at home with their children.

A small, unreasonably alert individual began, “I know usually I’m your compliant child,” the voice rambled.

_What time is it?_

The voice went on, “But I draw the line here, Mama.” A small, pointy finger drew an arbitrary line right down a ticklish spot in her ribs making Claire writhe in response.

_Why were the children always so awake in the middle of the night?!_

“I’m sorry, lovey,” she attempted to make sense of the situation through a sleep-muddled brain. “What is it that has you troubled?”

Most often Faith was concerned about things such as the baby bird in the garden who had fallen out of the nest or her friend at school who had gotten a blister on the climbing bars or her da who was working when she just wanted him home safe. She was usually very simple to placate though since she listened to reassurance and logic. Tonight, Claire hoped it would be straightforward as well because she was running on empty at the moment.

Impatiently swiping a stray curl from her face, she gave her full attention to Faith who copied the motion with her own hair in such a similar manner that Claire had to stifle a laugh.

“It’s Bree, Mama. She wet her bed again so she wants to sleep in mine but I said she has to change first but we can’t see because our room is dark because it’s night.”

She scrubbed her hand over her face wondering again why Jamie’s children were awake at such an obscene hour. “Did you turn on a lamp?” She swung her legs over the side of the bed and scooped Faith close in one smooth motion that came from the experience of motherhood. She wouldn’t have made her girls deal with the situation on their own but she _would_ have appreciated it if they developed problem-solving skills for the small things.

“Oh,” the surprised little voice paused. “No, we didn’t think of that.”

Brianna, though only two and a half at the time, had completely mastered potty-training before Willa and Fergus came along. Brianna, though nearly age three at present, was spectacularly backsliding now.

They passed the nursery where the smallest Frasers slept. _Hopefully slept_ corrected Claire internally. Willa and Fergus weren’t doing great sleeping through the night either, to be honest. That had been the issue last night.

Several times each night they would both wake and fuss enough that they didn’t fall back asleep on their own. They’d shared a crib until just recently when they both began to roll over. One would roll and bump into the other, waking both babies up. She and Jamie had decided that it was time for Willa and Fergus to be moved to their own cribs. It made sense logically speaking, but it also made her sentimental and maybe even a little bit sad to watch her babies grow so fast. Now the challenge was that though separate cribs meant there was no more rolling into one another, there also wasn’t the comfort and soothing of sleeping with the one another. The last few nights had been rough.

There was a reason sleep deprivation was considered a method of torture.

She continued pondering all the issues stemming from the nursery at present. Brianna and Faith had shared the nursery up until a few weeks before Willa was born. Thinking back, the room swap may have thrown Bree for a loop just as much as her new siblings had. She and Jamie had easily decided that their daughters would be happier if they still shared a room. They weren’t moving due to space constraints or opposing sleep habits. They were moving merely to make sure that Willa was nearest to the laird’s room.

The curly-haired Frasers entered the bedroom to find a scene of disarray. Brianna stood in the middle of the still-dark room, pants-less, her beloved snuggly blanket wrapped around her shoulders in cape-like fashion. She blinked owlishly as Claire snapped on the light.

“I had a accident,” she mumbled, scrunching her eyes to slivers as if the light was too much for her.

“I heard, _mon petit chou_ ,” she said as she sat Faith down on her own bed, tucking her under the blankets and kissing her forehead.

With speed and precision, she made sure Bree was tidied up for the night and proceeded to strip her bed, making an unusual discovery therein.

“Brianna,” she paused. “What is this?” She held up an empty juice pouch that she’d found in the bed.

“Juice,” Bree stated simply, shrugging as if everyone smuggled juice to bed on a regular basis.

She sighed and fought to control her frustration, knowing that most of it stemmed from a lack of sleep. Breathing deep, she continued. “Brianna, you know that we don’t have anything to drink after dinner except a bedtime sip of water. A small sip.” She gently pulled Bree, who was twirling around in lazy circles in a fresh nightgown, to her in order to make eye contact.

“What did Mama just say, Bree?” She struggled to maintain her calm.

“Thaaaaaat, we dinna drink juice in bed?” her red-headed daughter guessed.

Claire shut her eyes and breathed, counting to ten before continuing to talk to her child who clearly wasn’t listening. Possibly the middle of the night wasn’t the time to have these conversations anyway.

“No, we don’t drink juice in bed, but Mama just told you that we don’t drink _anything_ after dinner except for our one sip of water _right_ before bed,” she emphasized the final part hoping that Bree would just go to bed. Right away.

“Aye, Mama!” Bree slipped from her grasp and scampered off to curl next to Faith who immediately embraced her sister.

Claire shook her head and flipped off the lights then walked, or more accurately, stumbled back to their bedroom. She fell into bed and she woke in her husband’s arms.

“Mmm, when did you get here?” she asked in a husky morning voice and she turned to face him.

“No’ long ago. Though I kent the bairns would be waking soon I wanted to hold my wife for just a bit.”

“Your children are holy terrors at night,” she mumbled into him.

“Oh, aye? What have they done now?” He raised his eyebrows as she proceeded to explain the troubles of separating Willa and Fergus as well as Bree’s juice escapades.

“Though I’ll be wi’ ye all for the next few nights, I think that I owe ye some help this morning as well, Sassenach.” He slowly rolled out of bed as the din coming from the general direction of Brianna raised. “Stay in bed for a while and I’ll tend to the bairns. We’ll send up breakfast once it’s ready.”

He smirked at her from the doorway. “Maybe I’ll let ye have juice in bed.”


End file.
